Author Archives: Grace

Home Sweet Home

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I am long overdue a visit to Oz with my last one being three years ago so I am looking forward to the next three or so weeks of what will hopefully be sun, sun, sun! I’ve got a lot to pack in with a visit firstly to Melbourne for Pauline’s wedding followed up by catching up with friends in Brisbane, catching up with friends on the Gold Coast and of course, most importantly, spending time with the family.

The excitement has been dampened a little bit by the fact that floods have hit Brisbane (and with the promise of more crazy weather all over the place.) Ironically, apart from the fact that the whole CBD and other areas in Brisbane are currently under water the weather is promising to actually be pretty good over the next few weeks. I’m having a day of rest today to recover from the looooong journey over from London. Its hard not to stay glued to the television and googling video and images from the flooding. But, in true Aussie spirit, there is a great sense of just getting on with it and helping the neighbour. For example, I already know that heaps of my friends from my ex-work place are planning to volunteer if they aren’t already out there helping out. Its moments like these that makes you feel to be proud to be a Queenslander.

The Bright Lights of New York

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It may seem like all I did in New York was eat eat eat. Admittedly we did spend a lot of our time doing that but we also found plenty of time to indulge in some sight-seeing and general other non-eating pursuits. There were:

Dinners with the family (yes, technically eating but I’m focusing more on the spending time with the family and general catching up)

Playing in the snow (a blizzard took us by surprise on boxing day evening which effectively kept us indoors for a bit. I did ask for a White Christmas but this was just ridiculous) …

… this sadly meant there was no visit to Woodbury Common for us this year. Instead Pat and I had a day out at Jersey Gardens Outlet. Its not as good as Woodbury Common by any stretch of the imagination but it was the best substitute for the littlest effort with a bus departing from the Port Authority Bus Terminal that wasn’t hours and hours away. As an added plus on quite a brisk day the outlets are also all indoors so no bad weather to contend with. One tip for the return trip is that if you don’t want to end up standing all the way back into Manhattan with your shopping (its about a 40 minute ride without traffic) so get to bus stop well before its supposed to arrive.

Food of a more minor note was also indulged in at Ess-A-Bagel. Okay – I couldn’t help going back to food for a moment. I just remembered Ess-A-Bagel more as an experience than as a dining destination. When we got there at about 10 in the morning it was total chaos and that certainly didn’t stop the hordes of crowds lining up to get what is supposedly one of the best bagels you can get anywhere… in the world. Ess-A-Bagel kind of actually reminds me a bit of Wong Kei here in London – where the reputation of the place is not great to the point of what seems like rudeness, orders can get mixed up, and the focus is on getting people through the line as quickly as possible and out of the shop! Well, that is, unless the guy behind the counter is trying to flirt with you, like my guy was with me! The choice of bagel, fillings, size, sides, etc. etc. can be totally overwhelming and once you’re up you better be prepared to snap out your order quick smart or your server is going to get mad at you and start shouting at you. I’m sure its all part of the theatre and experience. The pro of the queue being so long is that you do have time to look at what is on offer and to work out exactly what you want. Be prepared to eat you bagel on the run as well as there is only limited space inside to sit down and eat.

I’m sure queues at Ess-A-Bagel are long at any time, but being the holiday season queues and crowds were ridiculous all over the place, including at Times Square

and M&M World. M&M World was busy to the point that they were actually limiting the number of people in the store. I have never had to wait in a queue to get into the place! I knew exactly how this guy felt:

A couple of museums were on my hit list including a long awaited visit to the MoMA. I’ve always wanted to visit but have been put off by the price ($20) if I’m honest. Thought it was time to bite the bullet and pay the price … but on a positive note our ticket also got us free entry to PS1 (normally $10), kind of a little baby brother/sister to the MoMA and located over in Long Island. I think PS1 does more edgy less mainstream stuff than that featured at the MoMA. If you’re visiting the MoMA my advice would be to time your visit with one of the free guided tours which comes with price of admission – I got infinitely more value out of the tour than just going around on my own and every tour is likely to be different depending on the tour guide that you get.

Many people don’t quite understand modern art and admittedly sometimes I too scratch my head in confusion but often it is entertaining to me in a way classic art isn’t. For example, “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano” is a piece by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla which basically involves a grand piano with a hole cut out of the middle where the artist stands and plays Beethoven’s Ode to Joy upside down and in reverse whilst walking around the floor. I really didn’t understand it but I did enjoy watching the crowds following the piano around.

Some other pieces that caught my attention were the following:

PS1 had very contemporary art. By far and away the most interesting exhibit on our visit was Feng Mengbo’s “Long March: Restart (2008)”. Basically a large installation of an interactive video game on two long walls, it featured some old school classics such as Mario Bros and Street Fighter merged with propaganda motifs from Communist China. Very cool.

Another interactive feature was Peter Campus’ Shadow Projection. This video installation basically projected your shadow but at the same time projected your features on to the shadow. Weird but it worked.

PS1 isn’t that huge but pieces are often challenging – definitely worth a paired visit with the MoMA. No photos allowed though 🙁

Oh, these books were in the bookshop. Interesting …

Indulging our kiddie side, okay, my kiddie side, we also visited the Lego store (I swear the parents were crazier than the kids)

FDNY Firezone. Very disappointing – was hoping to see some hot fire men. I have a feeling it was aimed more at the little ones than us big uns! Heh heh. And whilst we were in the Rockefeller Centre area we hopped over to the Nintendo Store to check out the latest games on the wii and try on a new backpack. Do you think a turtle shell would suit me?

We also visited the kid friendly New York Hall of Science. We pretty much had the run of the place – which is what you want in an interactive museum. Its not the most modern Hall of Science I’ve been to but it is actually I think one of the more interactive ones. This includes a dedicated sports zone where you can surf, throw a baseball, race a car, shoot hoops, ride a bike etc.

Speaking of sports I of course took us over to Chelsea Piers for a bucket of balls. First time I’ve been there and there has been snow around the greens.

Finally, back to food, sorta! Pat arranged a Foods of New York tour for us around Central Greenwich Village and a bit of Soho. This was a mixture of food tasting and culture. Our guide took us to the following food places: Focacceria (famous for serving Italian sandwiches), Masala Times and Monte’s Trattoria. At the Trattoria we not only tasted some beautiful ragù we also got a free mini diary ..

We also visited a place called Cuba (which was our last sit down tasting) and after a side walk flat pizza from Grandaisy Italian Bakery (it was divine) we had a tart from Once Upon a Tart. The tour actually went over time as our guide was really getting into her story telling including pointing out where Robert De Niro shot his avert for Australian coffee Vittoria (at Caffe Dante) and also the Minetta Tavern (which is where writers, poets, and pugilists hung out.) Someone famous also used to live here …

… until their stalker drove them out! I think it was some musician but I can’t fully remember who it was! Our tour took us through Washington Square where we were entertained by a man and his piano!

The walk and talk was a combination of sit downs and eating on the sidewalk – an interesting way to get to know the area. There are some interesting tours that you can do in New York – one of the couples we got to know on the tour happened to be in the food business and they told us about this one that takes you along the subway hitting all the famous fast food places. Or something like that. Whatever it was sounded interesting!

After all of that I felt exactly like Bear did – just a little pooped out 🙂

All’s Well at M. Wells Diner

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Magasin Wells Diner is this cute little diner that Pat found in Long Island. Food served is described as “Quebeco-American cuisine” by the owners with the menu seemingly Diner-like (Hamburgers, Egg-Sausage Sandwiches, Fish n’ Chips) but with twists, for example the burger has a Harissa Mayo, the egg-sausage sandwich a pickled jalapeno.

The menu too has some interesting dishes such as Pickled Pork Tongue, Bay Scallop Ceviche, and Escargots and Bone Marrow. The menu on the board behind the bar also included Foie Gras! The bone marrow in particular seemed quite popular if the chef’s preparations were anything to go by.

Today the Seafood Cobbler grabbed my attention with the promise of Bechamel, Gruyere and Biscuits. Mmm … Pat, went for a beautiful looking (and tasting) Pea Soup. Both warmed dishes seemed fitting in light of the light snow that fell outside whilst we were eating!

The cool thing about M. Wells Diner is that it seemed to be frequented by locals – always a good sign when you eat at any venue!

Korean BBQ in Flushing

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And to a barbecue of a different kind – the Korean BBQ! Flushing is well-known for its amazing Korean BBQs. From my experience you can walk into any random Korean restaurant in Flushing and walk out impressed and pleased. This is exactly what Pat and I did. We simply walked to Northern Boulevard, which is one of the larger main streets in Flushing, and picked out a restaurant which took our fancy.

What I love about Korean BBQ in America is that you don’t have to worry about ordering (and paying for) every little side – you simply pick your meats and then everything that you need to eat with it just comes out. And when I say everything I mean everything. Check out everything we got!

Every side is generally re-fillable as well without extra costs. And the meat – well, it sure was tasty. Our waitress, who didn’t speak the best English, sure was entertained by us. We had her giggling and laughing at our antics. And we were just trying to work out what to eat. Maybe she was giggling cause we’d ordered so much! But they were really nice to us and sweet. Just a shame I didn’t take down the name of the restaurant!

Hill Country Barbecue

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Sandra and Julian were in town to spend some of the Christmas/New Year’s season with Sandra’s family so as I mentioned in an earlier post we had a “meat” up (ha ha – I so crack myself up) at Hill Country.

The way that Hill Country works is that rather than order items off the menu when you first enter the dining area (whether you are therefore for a take away or to sit down) you are handed a Meal Ticket.

You then take this Meal ticket up to the meat counter and the sides counter and order to your delight. Meat is served in butcher paper and priced by the pound. The barbecue selection includes Beef Brisket (Moist and Lean – the Moist is the best item on the barbecue menu by far, the fattier the better!), Beef Shoulder, Beef Prime Rib and Ribs, Pork Spare Ribs, Sausages and Chicken. On another counter sits the sides which include Mac and Cheese, Campfire Baked Beans, Sweet Potato Bourban Mash etc.

It’s a really great way to order your food as you then can choose and make your own combination of barbecue up, and also have as little or as much as you want. It is, however, difficult not to get carried away! They also have an All You Can Eat night if you can handle it! An ideal venue for larger groups as it certainly makes ordering easier – no need to contend with fussy eaters!

Taste-wise – meat is smoked low and slow over Texas post oak so it comes out tender and with a great flavour and texture to it (though maybe some meats could have had slightly less salt …) As I said the winning barbecue has to be the Moist Beef Brisket. Delicious.

Most nights the bar downstairs has some sort of live music – so there is always plenty of atmosphere and energy. It can get really loud – but you don’t go there for a quiet night in!

Tron: Legacy

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Between eating today we made time to check out Tron, a reboot of a cult classic1980s movie which was one of the earliest to take video games to the big screen, and possibly the first to feature CGI technology – it was going to be interesting to see how advances in CGI since that time could bring something different to the big screen.

Sam (Garrett Hedlund) loses his father (Jeff Bridges) at an early age – no one knows where he went or what happened to him but it was surely something connected to the ENCOM Corporation whom his father was involved in. Sam has been looking for his father ever since and when he is lead at last to an old arcade parlour and what seems to be an old computer of his father’s he is zapped into The Grid, a computer world developed by his father and where people seemingly live, fight and play. Sam seeks a way to bring his father back into the real world. Of course there is a hot gal, Oliva Wilde, there to also help him 😉

The story is much more complicated than that with evil henchmens, backstabbing etc. but the whole point of the movie is the visual effects – which were simply stunning. The most exciting part of the movie is that it is unlike anything that we’ve seen on the big screen today – and watching it gives that feel of nostalgia which takes you back to your childhood and those fun involved old school games. Some awesome costumes in the movie as well and great soundtrack.

Eleven Madison Park, New York

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Eleven Madison Park (wikipedia discloses that owner Danny Meyer also counts Shake Shack in his stable!) entered this year’s S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants in the world at #50 but in my opinion deserves a ranking much higher and it also deserves more than just its one Michelin Star.

Since we had been splurging a bit on our meals this past week we thought we should dial it back some and opt for having lunch at Eleven Madison Park which, at four courses for $74, may seem pricey for a lunch was a bit more economical for us than what I presume was a similar menu at dinner for $125! Having said that every $ we spent at lunch today was worth it and more.

The restaurant has a very cool concept for its menu, designed by the winner of this year’s James Beard “Best Chef: NYC”, Daniel Humm. The menu (hidden within our serviette) consists of sixteen ingredients from which you choose three or four to form your tasting menu but the cooking is left up to the chefs. So, this allows you to indulge in a surprise tasting menu but still with some measure of control. The menu changes on a regular basis and for today’s lunch our menu was thus:

In theory you can choose any three or four ingredients you want for your meal, so if you really wanted you could order all dessert type ingredients (such as the chevre, coconut, lemon and chocolate) or all meat (chicken, pork, lamb and beef.) In reality you’re more likely to choose something from each grouping (cold, hot, meat, dessert) to ensure you have a balanced meal. If this really confuses you the wait-staff are very friendly and not at all condescending when explaining the menu – and they can offer you advice on which ingredients work well together if you’re stuck for inspiration.

Where the menu for Eleven Madison Park is minimalist you could hardly have said the same for the décor of the restaurant, the involvement of the staff, the drinks and, most importantly, the food. I absolutely loved the fact that everything was branded with the Eleven Madison Park logo which consist of cute outlines of various leaves from the menu, to the panels along the wall, to the etchings in the revolving door entrance. Oh and the butters too (one was from goat’s milk – odd tasting – and the other cow’s milk)! As an added bonus, even though there only two of us, they sat us at a table fit for four with both of us facing into the room so that neither of us had our back to the room – super like!

So, I’ve written over 400 words and I haven’t even started talking about the food. That’s how excited I was about my visit to the restaurant today. Everything about the experience was just so fun and enjoyable! But fear not, the food porn is about to begin!

Whilst deciding on drinks and the menu the first items to be brought out were some melt-in-your-mouth incredible delicate cheese puffs. Jenny – you would have adored these!

Drinks were interesting propositions. Our drink waiter was so enthusiastic about the Hot Buttered Rum that Pat couldn’t resist going for that whilst my drink of choice was the Orange Julius (kind of like a liquid version of orange ice cream!). Interesting and delicious as our drinks were, we soon pushed these to the side when our meal started in earnest.

The Amuse Bouche

Chicken veloute with toasted brioches and black truffle butter was first up. The veloute was served in a tea cup and poured out of a tea pot (for entertainment one presumes). Both items balanced each other well and I was pleased that the veloute was perfectly seasoned.

Smoked sturgeon sabayon hot chive oil was served in a egg shell with its top cut off perfectly straight and whilst this was good the item that followed next was just trufflicious, a slow poached egg, poached in truffle in an air tight container, and then covered in white truffle foam. A group of four people arrived to have lunch a little later than we did and one or two of them must have had some fussiness/food dislikes over the ingredients they could have and we saw that they missed out on this particular treat and other wonders. Such a shame when you go to a restaurant as explorative as Eleven Madison Park and you can’t indulge in absolutely everything or anything the chef throws at you!

After our trio of amuse bouche had been served we were then given some bread and butter (the aforementioned goat’s milk and cow’s milk butters, the fussy table got olive oil instead …) Bread was satisfyingly served warm.

Then we were on to our meal proper.

The Meal Proper

Undeniably the best dish of the lunch had to have been Pat’s Foie Gras (first two pictures) served two ways: in a terrine served with pearl onions and pineapple and then, in a twist of brilliance, as a crème brulee with toasted brioche. The terrine was good with the tartness of the pineapple cutting through the richness but the crème brulee was just stunning. Pat was nice enough to let me have a taste, not sure I would have been so generous! Ha ha! Something about the crusty burnt sugar flavour really did something to emphasise but contrast with the creaminess of the foie gras custard underneath.

My Turbot served fairly simply with sundried tomatoes, beans and fennel was lovely and fresh.

I stuck to the seafood theme for my next course with Nova Scotia Lobster served with roasted and candied chestnuts and spiced squash sauce. Pat had a crab with lemon juice and fresh tagliatelle pasta. Pat reports that the pasta couldn’t have been fresher and there was certainly a lot of crab (the only neg being two spots of very small crab shell!)

I can never go past a pork dish on most menus and it was no exception. Pork was served three ways, as a sausage, roasted pork belly and a kind of braised loin (I think!) This dish was served with mustard seeds, interestingly pear, and also sauerkraut and baby onions. Crackling on the pork belly was cooked to perfection.

Pat had a lamb dish served strangely with apple. Apparently it worked well!

Before moving on to our dessert we had a pre-dessert which was the restaurant’s take on the Kir royal with cassis sorbet champagne foam and meringue. It was served on this plate which looked like a pillow so it kind of highlighted the lightness and frothiness of the pre-dessert.

Coconut was the ingredient and inspiration for my dessert and consisted of toasted coconut flakes, coconut ice cream (divine), pineapple ice cream and caramelised chunks of pineapple. Did anyone say pina colada? Very refreshing and an ideal way to round off the meal.

Pat had an equally refreshing Lemon dessert. Pat considered this the weakest of the dishes but I thought he’d love it for the lemon curd, lemon sorbet, lemon cake crumbs and poppy seed shortbread. Perhaps there was too much lemon going on.

I don’t know if you’d consider them petit fours but immediately after our desserts were cleared we were presented with an almond peanut tulle but more fun a peanut banana sorbet lollipop! At this stage we were winding down and had asked for the bill (which came was delivered in a beautifully hand written form) but our waitress had a surprise for us! Don’t think she was expecting us to ask for the bill quite so quickly!

The Special Treat

Just to set the scene a little – all during our lunch service the service was attentive and friendly. Even when the wait-staff weren’t serving us drinks or checking on us they would walk by and on occasion make light conversation – but they did it in a manner that seemed entirely natural and not at all forced. I think our food was also delivered by chefs – but chefs or wait staff alike they all certainly knew their food, always a sign of an excellent restaurant. At any rate the staff must have seen how excited we were about dining at the restaurant because our surprise was … a tour of the kitchen! We were brought to stand behind what appeared to be a table laid out – it was at chest height and had a white tablecloth over it and two spoons.

I wasn’t really thinking about the table whilst the various aspects of the kitchen and the chefs were explained to us. I couldn’t believe how many chefs there were – there must have been at least ten hovering around the dessert area alone! Despite this it was an oasis of calm it seemed – no shouting and rushing around, all very neat and calm and organised.

And then, to top this all off, one of the dessert chefs then came over to make us a surprise extra item – a meringue, popping candy and sorbet dish made with the aid of liquid nitrogen (of course). This really was a fantastic personal touch (though they must do it sufficiently regularly if they had a table in the kitchen) and this left us on a definite high when we left the restaurant nearly three hours after we first sat down. I can’t say enough good things about the restaurant I certainly hope it gets the recognition it deserves.

Shake Shack, New York

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Shake Shack is awesome for two reasons – it combines good old fashion junk food (like burgers, hot dogs) with my other love, milkshakes! Hilariously they even offer something for your four-legged best friend. If I’m honest “The Pooch-ini” (ShackBurger dog biscuits, peanut butter sauce and vanilla custard) sounded nice enough that even I wanted to order it!

Shake Shack is a chain restaurant that is slowly growing and there are currently five of them in New York. The first one opened in Madison Square Park but tonight, after a hard day’s shopping at the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets, we stopped in at the branch near Times Square. To say it was heaving would have been an understatement and our challenge was (1) understanding how to order a milkshake and (2) finding a seat! The burger was easy enough – they keep it pretty simple and the most complicated burger is one including lettuce, tomato, cheese and ShackSauce! For milkshakes you can go with something fairly standard or you can try a Concrete. What? Basically its three scoops of what the Shake Shack call frozen custard (soft serve shacked with premium ice cream) and mix-ins. Mix-ins/toppings include marshmallow sauce, choc covered pretzels, doughnuts, cookie dough etc. Diabetics watch out!

So our little tray doesn’t look the most appetising the way our Concretes are presented but it was pretty tasty. The Concretes were way sweet but I liked how they were a drink and dessert rolled into one. Hmmm …

Clinton Street Bakery, New York

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Everybody loves a good brunch and the folks at Clinton Street Bakery are known to deliver in spades. Whether the hype is deserved or not you need to get to the Bakery pretty early in the morning to guarantee that you’re first in the line – and you may want to do this since there are only 32 covers and no reservations taken! We arrived probably about an hour before it was due to open and even that early in the morning we were soon joined by quite a number of people. The manager of the restaurant was quite concerned that the queuing throng not take up the pathway (maybe they get a lot of complaints from the locals) so she kept coming out to ask everyone to try and stay to the side.

Once in, we settled in to check out the menu. Their reputation is based on their awesome pancakes, biscuits and just general fresh-baked items. Pat surprisingly did not go for any pancakes but had a Country Breakfast consisting of three eggs sunny side up, ham steak, hash browns and buttermilk biscuit. Think it was the biscuit that enticed him. Our fellow diners, Pat’s friend from work I think, ordered on a similar theme. However, I went somewhere completely different and could not resist the Fried Chicken and Waffle with maple butter – come one, honestly, who can pass up fried chicken for breakfast!

In actuality the Fried Chicken was a small disappointment as it was just a touch over-cooked and being a piece of breast meat this resulted it being a little on the dry side. But thanks to the gorgeous maple butter sauce that came with it – I was still able to enjoy it and also enjoy the fact I was having fried chicken for breakfast.

Impressively for such a busy establishment we weren’t rushed to finish our meal. Instead pressure came in the form of the loitering diners in the queue! Still, if you can manage to ignore the throngs (they don’t let too many into the restaurant itself) you can have yourself quite a pleasant brunch. And, if you don’t fancy the long lines, they serve breakfast all day so you can always come when its not peak breakfast eating time.

Restaurant Zarela, then too much cake!

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For food that is quite more-ish and the kind of stodgy type of food I normally enjoy I don’t actually eat that much Mexican so when Pat suggested Zarela for tonight I was well up for it. Walking into Zarela you are hit by the buzzy atmosphere and the warmth and friendliness and homeliness of the place. Its not one of these posh restaurants so that made a nice change!

The choice on the menu is wide with some not so typical Mexican dishes so there will be something there to suit everyone. Whilst you decide on what to eat you are provided with a bowl of corn chips – which turned out to be our downfall because as much as we tried not to indulge when they are sitting in front of you, you don’t even realise that you’re nibbling until you’ve practically swallowed the things. And of course the bowl kept getting refilled 😉

Getting carried away and forgetting about US sized portions we over-ordered with three entrees, two mains and sides. Starters were an Enchilada de Pollo Mole (Corn tortillas filled with chicken and cheese, baked with mole of the day), Chilaquiles (crisp corn tortilla strips, shredded sautéed chicken, sour cream and cheese baked in a casserole with creamy tomatillo sauce) and one of the Specials of the day Tortitas de Flor de Jamaica (hibiscus flower cakes served with creamy roasted tomato sauce.)

Mains were a Manchamanteles de Pato (roasted half duck served with a tomato red chile sauce with dried apricots, prunes, raisins and pineapple) and Barbecoa de Carnero (Oaxacan shredded lamb barbacoa cooked in an ancho chile adobo with avocado leaves and served on flour tortillas.) With my duck I also ordered a side of Arroz con Crema (rice baked with cream sauce, white cheddar cheese, poblanos and corn) which sounded more intriguing than the actual dish but went well with my duck. The rice dish is the signature dish of the restaurant and one I’ve certainly not seen on any other Mexican menu.

With the exception of the flower cakes (marks for trying something a little different), food at Zarela was perfection. I liked the fact that it wasn’t Tex-Mex and departed from the norm. Meat was gorgeously tender, mole had just the right balance and if the menu said creamy, the dishes certainly delivered. Pat reports that the margarita he had was also pretty darn awesome. Potent too from the looks of his skin colour. Ha ha.

And as if that wasn’t enough for our dinner we then headed a couple of blocks over for some dessert at Buttercup Cake Shop, I think opened by the former co-owner of Magnolia Bakery which is famed for creating the cupcake craze.

Yes, we were in a food coma on the subway all the way home!